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The earliest reference to finds of hammer stones, ancient workings and the remains of brushwood fires at the top of the mountain (within an area since
lost to collapse inside of the Great Opencast) is to be found within the ‘Journal of a Tour in Wales 1796’ by Christopher Sykes of Sledmere, Yorks.
In 1937 Oliver Davies investigated old workings within the area of the windmill and identified ancient tips with hammer stones and charcoal just
to the north of here close to the
site of the Oxen Quarry (Chwarel yr Eigion). Davies’ trench was re-discovered by the EMRG during the summer of 1988, and the subsequent excavation of a 10 m diameter sub-circular spoil mound provided a selection of stone tools plus three radiocarbon dates of between 2050 and 1690 yrs cal BC from the associated charcoal layers.
Access was made available to cavers to examine the 19th century underground workings via. the Parys Footway Shaft in 1995. Following this two more
areas of Early Bronze Age mining became accessible within stope workings leading off from the 16 and 20 fathom levels. Four underground sections have now been recorded by David Jenkins and a further ten Early Bronze
Age radiocarbon dates plus some important environmental evidence have been obtained from a number of these sites (Jenkins 2003).
It would seem therefore that the prehistoric miners sunk inclined drifts or opencuts to a depth of up to 100 feet from surface in order to extract the
chalcopyrite ore.
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